Trooping the colours

[enelrad]

This is a tactic that I use once in a while when I want a civ to behave itself and not start a war.

I troop a couple of my best units in front of the enemy who probably doesn't have it yet. This seems to work often. I'm not sure why it works- if it works.

This seemed to work against the Egyptians (and their worthless friends- the Americans) as Egypt, discovering they were outclassed, decided to invade the Persian contintent instead.

It is likely that the AI knows exactly what I have.

I've noticed that the Egyptians try this same tactic. When they are planning to invade, they start posting War chariots (now that's funny in 1810) near the borders.

In my last game, I decided not to do this with later units. I built battleships and kept them in the ports in which they were built until two turns before I needed them (two turns away)

Is this tactic working or does it only seem to work?

 

[Hawkx9]

Well, the AI is definitely aware when you place troops next to their borders. For instance, in my current game I had just Vassalized the Egyptians and was a little low on military units, so my second neighbor, the Aztecs, decided to start amassing Jag Warriors inside and next to my borders. They hadn't declared war yet but their mood was falling fast. This was still in the Ancient Era.

I was not prepared for a full-scale assault against this second neighbor so I pulled together as many Swordsmen as I could muster (5-6) and placed them next to the Aztec border in a flanking position. That scared them off. They pulled back all of their units. I was amazed. I'm never seen the AI pull back such a large force.

It is my assumption that the AI's basis for attack is your "military strength," i.e. the number of units you have. <b>But</b> when I placed a small stack of strong units along their border they changed their mind.

Anyone else seen this kind of pattern, the AI retreating/bowing when you place some good units along their border for all to see?

 

[Doomsday]

I have noticed the exact same thing. The zulus build up a massive force right on my southern border, a mix of knights, cavalry, and riflemen. But when I put my cavalry on another border I shared with them, thier units dispersed.

This also works negatively. I was allied with the chinese, and in preparation for an attack on them (heheh I backstab), I moved all my units into 3 different stacks on the border. I go to trade with them like I do every turn, and they were suddenly annoyed with me. They knew what was coming. So now I just make sure there are roads and such linking to where I want to go for a fast attack and then attack from a city where I amass all my troops.

 

[omichyron]

Yes. I was once betrayed by the Zulus and pretty much wiped out. Since I didn't feel like playing through the ancient times again, I loaded my last saved game. I pulled troops off of the Greek front and stuck them in my cities near the Zulu border to wait for their attack. It never came.

 

[Troyens]

Here's the variant of all the above:

SUCKER THEM IN.

Keep weak units (not too many) near the border; make no movement they might see. Meanwhile, have a few cities back, a strong offensive attack force - swordsmen, knights, cavalry, depending on the Age. Then let them attack.

I was amazed to see a stack of fourteen German archers, swordsmen (and some spearmen and warriors) suddenly cross the border. Unfortunately for them, they had to cross an open plain to get to my city. They were promptly attacked by just nine swordsmen on a hill. He lost seven units to my two. His remaining seven then atacked my seven (on the hill) and he lost five to one.

His remaining two units were finished off by a couple of archers from the city garrison who caught them on the road.

I then replenished my units, reinforced them, and invaded taking three cities.

This pattern repeated itself in another game against the Russians (a huge horseman force chopped to bits by half as many samurai who waited for them, and by a Russian knight force counterattacked by my samurai and cavalry).

Even if you have parity in quality (swordsmen vs swordsmen) IF YOU GET IN THE FIRST ATTACK ON AN UNFORTIFIED ENEMY YOU HAVE A BIG ADVANTAGE. This is especially so if you are on good defensive terrain - the survivors will attack you when you are on it.